Thanks so much for all the sweet comments and emails after yesterday’s post. We appreciate all the support and prayers.
Gulley and I left San Antonio on Thursday afternoon and headed to College Station because I’m speaking today at an event for the Texas A&M Foundation. Thursday evening, Honey took Gulley, Tiff and me out to dinner at Christopher’s World Grille, which is just about the most amazing food you will ever eat. They have a crawfish fondue that will make you cry tears of happiness. We all had the best time together and now we’re sitting here in our pajamas so I’m going to make this short.
I’m not generally a fan of rompers, but this one is really cute. I happen to like it best in black but it also comes in a couple of patterns if that’s more you’re thing. I can totally see this with gold sandals and jewelry.
These flip flops have been one of my summer standards for the last three summers. They’re inexpensive, come in a ton of colors and add a great pop of color to any outfit.
I actually have this dress in coral and blue, but I love it in this navy. If you click the link above it will take you to Ikat Elephant’s Facebook page and you’ll just need to scroll down the page until you find it.
It’s only $35 and it’s a little short, but has enough material in the hem that you can easily add an extra 2-3 inches to the length depending on your leg needs.
I was going to begin this whole thing with “A little over a month ago some things began to come together…” but then I sat here and thought about it and that’s not accurate. And so, GOOD NEWS, you’re about to get a long story.
P and I have attended the same church since Caroline was less than a year old. And it was a church we’d had ties to long before that. It was a great place for us for all those years. We were involved with different ministry groups, learned so much from our pastor’s teaching, made new friends, and there was a time when I couldn’t imagine we’d ever leave to go anywhere else.
But then early last summer something began to shift. At first I thought it was just me until P and I talked about it one night and realized we were both feeling the same things. I can’t even tell you what the exact feeling was other than just a little bit of restlessness regarding church that we hadn’t experienced in a long time. So we began to pray about it and just agreed to see what happened next. And what happened was Caroline moved up to the Junior High Youth Group and began to enjoy church more than she ever had during the days of elementary Sunday School. We agreed that was the most important thing and decided it meant we should stay put.
Then about two weeks after that, the youth director sent out an email informing parents that the Youth Group would no longer meet on Sunday mornings and instead would just meet on Wednesday nights. And here’s the thing, that schedule just wasn’t going to work for us since the church is about a thirty minute drive from our house on a Sunday morning and takes even longer when you factor in weekday traffic. Plus, Caroline admitted she never really got to know the other kids because none of them are from our neighborhood or attend her school and what she really wanted was to go to church closer to home.
I remember one time I heard Priscilla Shirer tell how a mother eagle begins to shake her nest when it’s time for her babies to start flying and that’s what all of this was as I look back on it. Our familiar little nest was being shaken because God was calling us out of our comfort zone.
As we talked as a family one night over dinner early last fall, what became clear was that we all had a heart to attend church in our neighborhood, with the people we go to school with and grocery shop with and see every day. Even though we live in San Antonio, our little area feels much more like a small town and we had no doubt God was calling us to be a part of something right here and not thirty minutes away, especially as we have watched so many of the kids that used to be in our Campus Life group move back to our neighborhood to raise their families. Our hearts were increasingly drawn close to home. The problem was we weren’t sure there was a church that would be the right fit for us. Then one night that I’ll never forget, Caroline declared, “Maybe we should start a church!”
I did the mom equivalent of patting her on the head and saying, “Aw what a sweet kid!” while everything inside me was thinking, “PLEASE GOD DON’T MAKE US START A CHURCH! I DON’T WANT TO START A CHURCH!” And I knew P was thinking the exact same thing by the way he looked at me across the table.
But it was one of those things – you know those things – that just burned a hole in my heart and I knew – I KNEW – even though I ignored it, that there was something to it. Out of the mouths of babes and all that.
So instead we spent about six months visiting different churches in our neighborhood and I want you to know this – there are good churches here but none of them seemed right for us. The majority of them are very traditional and we just aren’t traditional church people. And here’s what I know for sure, church preference is such a personal decision. I mean, Gulley and I have never gone to the same church…that’s how personal and unique it is to each person. I don’t see the fact that we didn’t find the right church to be a reflection at all on any of the churches in this neighborhood as much as believing that God wanted to create a new, different space.
Which leads me to the last month.
Right after Easter (if you’re paying attention this was the exact same time I was releasing Nobody’s Cuter Than You which is proof God has a sense of humor because I have been on an adrenaline high for a month now due to all these converging things) P and I began to watch all these pieces fall into place. Pieces that we’d always sited as the reason we would never start a church because where would we find a good worship leader? Where would we meet? What about the fact that neither of us want ministry to be our full-time job? Would anyone even want to come to a new church? All those things just seemed insurmountable.
And I realize now that sounds ridiculous because, well, GOD. It turns out that when he says in Ephesians 3:20 that He will do more than you could ask or imagine, He means it. That’s why it’s more than you can imagine.
Because you can’t imagine it.
Our friends August and John Joffe were feeling called to something new and are going to lead worship for us. A church right down the street from our house and smack dab in the heart of our neighborhood has graciously offered us some unused space to meet at 9:30 on Sunday mornings. P was in full time ministry during the first years of our marriage and is a great teacher. I also happen to be able to teach a Bible lesson from time to time, along with a couple of other people who want to be a part of this and we’ve already heard from several others who are excited about what we are doing and want to be a part.
And so what are we doing?
Well, the good news is God heard my prayers and we are not starting a church. We are starting a Community Worship Service. None of the people involved in its creation are looking at this as a vocation, but rather an organic gathering of people who want to come together for worship and teaching with their families each Sunday morning right in our neighborhood. Kind of like the first churches in Acts, we want it to be about the people and not the place.
I’ve felt so strongly over the last year God saying to me that the way to change your world is to start in your own community, invest in the lives of the people around you.
And so beginning Sunday, May 31st we are starting a Community Worship Service from 9:30-10:30 a.m. in the Fellowship Hall at Alamo Heights Baptist Church. It’s going to be a family service and everyone is welcome.
We would love your prayers as we begin this new chapter and, if you’re in the area and want to come join us, we would love to have you.
Well, Sophie and I finally got around to recording a new podcast yesterday. And we discussed things like dinner planning, how squeezing a little lime makes everything better, wedding and engagement photos, and my new love of frankincense.
But before you listen, a couple of quick housekeeping notes:
1. If you click on through, you’ll notice that I have a new layout on the blog. And you can also find a very fancy main page at melanieshankle.com.
2. Yesterday I sent out my third email newsletter. If you’re interested in receiving it, you can subscribe using the link in my sidebar. It’s super easy and I promise all you’ll get is my newsletter and no one informing you that you might inherit $530,000 euro from someone in Nigeria.
To listen to the podcast, you can click here to listen. Or here. You can even listen right here on the blog.
I’m sitting here just a little bit teary as I think back over this past weekend. Which is pretty remarkable when you consider that P is currently watching some show about people being stranded at sea for five days debating drinking their own urine while sharks circle below their raft. But my heart is full because I had the best weekend with friends and then came home to flowers waiting for me and a great Mother’s Day spent hanging out with my people.
There have been so many great memories that have come over the last month since Nobody’s Cuter Than You released out into the world that my heart has just been on overload. It’s like the internal version of my whole being right now is like the old Coca-Cola commercial and I want to teach the world to sing.
I think it was right after Spring Break when Gulley and I were texting with Jen one day and she said she would love to go to an Aggie baseball game before the season was over. And that started a whole lot of figuring out schedules, looking for tickets, making plans and general excitement as we marked the weekend of May 8th on our respective calendars to meet in College Station to watch the Aggies play their last regular season home series against South Carolina.
Honey and Big secured tickets for us because they were hard to come by once the Aggies became the #2 team in the nation and then I decided to add a book signing into the mix. Then our friends Jamie and Trevor decided to come too and bring their boys, plus Tiff already lives in College Station and a party was born.
Of course the problem with making plans for the month of May is that they never go quite as smoothly as you think because May is an INSANE MONTH THAT IS TRYING TO MAKE US ALL CRAZY with all its events and occasions and sporting events. So Gulley and her family ended up needing to wait until Saturday morning to leave due to the boys have Friday night baseball games. Meanwhile, I’d planned to pick Caroline up right after school on Friday and hit the road, but that was the day of a field trip and she didn’t get home until almost 5:30. Then by the time she showered and we got packed it was close to 7:00 p.m. We stopped for a quick Icee and a photo op along the way. I love this picture because it pretty much sums us up in that we had two different ideas about the kind of picture this was going to be.
Anyway, we eventually made our way to Honey and Big’s house and Jen met us there after she’d gone to dinner with Jamie, Trevor and some other friends. We all caught up for a few minutes but headed to bed pretty quickly since we were all exhausted.
But Saturday morning Jen’s little boy, Lincoln, woke us up all bright and early. He was immediately initiated into Honey’s brownies for breakfast program and then spent a lot of time lining up his trucks just right and fell in love with Honey’s beta fish who happens to be named “Kevin Sumlin” although Linc kept calling him “Heaven”. I also had the opportunity to wipe his behind after he pooped which was a real treat because it’s been many years since someone yelled at me to come “WIPE ME!”
Gulley got into town and then we all headed to LifeWay in College Station for the book signing. Tiff and Jamie met us there and the kids all ran up and down the sidewalk and, honestly, I don’t know what else because I was too busy meeting so many nice people and signing books. I do know that Caroline found several things she wanted to purchase because she kept stacking them by my feet as I signed books.
I just need you to know I may write an annual book on friendship from here on out just so I have a reason to keep getting together with all my girls over and over again. It’s so weird because I thought I knew what they meant to me when I was writing it, but I think seeing how they have shown up and cheered me on and just how much we all love being together has made me cherish each of these girls all the more. They are such a part of my heart.
And just when you thought I wasn’t going to get any sappier, there’s this.
If you’ve read the book, you may remember that I mention Nena’s best friends, Jo and Dorothy Kay, in the last chapter. They showed up at LifeWay to get their books signed which was enough to do me in but, not only that, they each were carrying one of Nena’s old purses so that a little part of Nena could be there too. It took everything in me not to fall on the floor in tears. That’s Jo, me, Dorothy Kay, Gulley and Honey all together. I have to believe Nena was smiling down on us because she loved nothing more than a party.
And if that’s not enough to make your heart grow ten sizes today, Dorothy Kay managed to sell more books for me because she told a lady at the cash register that she needed to buy it and then Jo told that lady, “When you read about Jo, that’s me. I’m Jo.” They are just the best and it meant so much to me that they came.
After we left the store we all went to eat burgers at Koppe Bridge before we headed out to Olson Field to watch the Aggies play. The kids ran around and we all laughed and told stories and soaked it all up.
We finally made it to the game and Olson was about as packed as I’ve ever seen it and it was about as humid as I can remember. As we were all trying our best not to sweat, Jamie asked, “Is this what they refer to as ‘sultry’?” It was beyond that. But we fed the kids snow cones and drank lots of water and watched the Aggies get down by five runs and then come back. And then get down again and come back.
Eventually most of our crew ended up standing under the breezeway because we all desperately wanted some shade and a breeze while we watched the game. But the kids stayed on the grass because they’re kids and don’t know about the sun spots you get when you turn forty.
Going into the bottom of the ninth, the Aggies were down by two but they came back and won it in a thrilling finish and we were all beside ourselves. We got to see the Olson magic and it was the perfect ending to a great day. And the dads texted to tell us to bring all the kids over to the grass and we took this picture to commemorate it.
Yes. We have a kid who has gone rogue with his Longhorn jersey. It’s something we’re all working through. But friends love even in the toughest of circumstances.
After the game, Jamie and Trevor were heading back to Dallas with their kids (Jen needed to leave a little earlier so she and her people had already gone) but they decided to swing by Honey and Big’s to grab a bite before hitting the road since Honey had a huge sandwich tray, more dips than I could count, cookies, and brownies waiting on us.
And somehow all the kids ended up piling in the car with Trevor so Jamie hopped in the car with Jon, Gulley and me. Then Trevor sent us this selfie.
I’m sure this is just what we imagined when we all first met in college.
Actually, it’s better than what we could have imagined back then.
1. Caroline went with me yesterday and we relocated the tadpoles/baby frogs to the creek by our house. I agreed to let her keep one and she has big plans to set up a whole terrarium type thing. But I’ll take one frog in a terrarium over five hundred roaming free in our backyard.
2. I’m going to be in College Station this weekend and will be signing books at the LifeWay store on Harvey Road at 11 a.m. on Saturday morning, May 9th. I would love to see you there. Best of all, the book will be on sale for just $10.39.
3. Speaking of Nobody’s Cuter Than You, it’s still in stock right now on Amazon but I can’t guarantee that will last for long. So if you’re thinking about getting a copy for yourself or one of your friends or maybe as a gift for your favorite graduate, you may want to go ahead and do it sooner rather than later. You can find it here.
4. At some point I will compile yesterday’s comments into a handy list of book recommendations for summer. Stay tuned.
I tried this on in Anthropologie about two months ago and it is so soft and fits so great. But I decided to wait for it to go on sale and today is that day. It’s been marked down to $29.95 and is the perfect length to wear with leggings.
And I know that maybe it’s too hot to think about long sleeves, but we’ll be glad to have it next fall.
Updated to add that Anthropologie is offering 20% off everything today with the code XOXO at purchase.
Last week I featured a sleeveless Mexican style embroidered top. I ordered that one and they also sent me one in this style and I may like it even better. It’s super soft and so pretty. A great thing to throw on with shorts.
When I spoke in Ozona a week or so ago, one of the girls had on this dress and I can’t even tell you how darling it is on. I kept looking at it all night and was delighted to see it at Anthropologie.
I ran in Gap yesterday on a whim because I had a few minutes to kill before I picked Caroline up from school and I saw these shorts. I’m not sure what made me try them on because they have an elastic waistband and, also, pockets. Two things I try to avoid in shorts.
But I grabbed them as I walked in the dressing room and I think I love them. They are super soft, a great length and can be dressed up or down. Plus, all full price items at Gap are 30% off with code WARM at checkout.
However, you will never see me tuck something into them. EVER.
This is another thing that caught my eye. These linen tees are the perfect fit and actually look great with the shorts featured above. They come in a ton of great colors and are $29.99 but 30% off with code WARM or 40% off with code SUMMERFUN if you have a Gap card.
Yet, one more thing from Gap. I don’t need a dress like this, but if you’re looking for a great casual dress that is easy to throw on with a pair of sandals, this one is perfect. It comes in a few different patterns and colors and I tried it on and will tell you to size down in it which is always a bonus. There are limited sizes left online but my store had plenty actually in stock. It’s $69.95 but 30% off with code WARM or 40% off with code SUMMERFUN if you have a Gap card.
So I have a bad habit of pretty much not reading books during the school year. I get busy with other things and end up watching T.V. at night or looking at things I’m never going to cook on Pinterest or looking at photos of my high school friends’ kids going to prom on Facebook.
Please stay tuned for my informative, helpful tips on proper time management skills.
When I flew to Birmingham last Saturday morning, I grabbed one of the books that’s been sitting unread on my nightstand for the last six months or so because I do enjoy reading books when I’m on a plane or sitting in an airport. I chose The Rosie Project, which was a romantic comedy. I don’t know that I loved it as much as other people who had raved about it, but it was cute and definitely kept my attention during my trip.
But the book that absolutely captivated me like none other recently is The Royal We. It’s a fictional story about an American girl who goes to Oxford and falls in love with the future King of England. And it had me hook, line and sinker. It has also made me believe that I understand the inner workings of the British monarchy which is a lot to ask of a complete work of fiction.
And next up is All the Light We Cannot See, but I’m doubtful I’ll get to it before summer vacation begins in a few weeks. Plus, I ordered Life After Life by Kate Atkinson today because I saw a few people talking about her new book coming out and I’ve never read any of her books so I figured I’d give it a whirl.
Anyway, the point is last summer you all helped me come up with a great reading list. You can find it here. And I would love to know your suggestions for this summer.
I’m looking for books that weren’t on last year’s list and lean heavily in the great beach read category. In other words, probably best to save your War and Peace recommendations for another blog.
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